No. 155, Original
IN THE Supreme Court of the United StatesSTATE OF TEXAS, Plaintiff, v. COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, et al., Defendants.
On Motion for Leave to File a Bill of Complaint
Motion for Leave to File Brief Amicus Curiae and Brief Amicus Curiae of U.S. Representative Mike Johnson and 105 Other Members of the U.S. House of Representatives in Support of Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to File a Bill of Complaint and Motion for a Preliminary Injunctioniff,
v.
COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA, et al.,
Defendants.
____________________
On Motion for Leave to File a Bill of Complaint
____________________
Motion for Leave to File Brief Amicus Curiae
and Brief Amicus Curiae of
U.S. Representative Mike Johnson and
105 Other Members of the U.S. House of
Representatives in Support of
Plaintiff’s Motion for Leave to
File a Bill of Complaint and
Motion for a Preliminary Injunction
____________________
WILLIAM J. OLSON
JEREMIAH L. MORGAN
ROBERT J. OLSON
HERBERT W. TITUS
WILLIAM J. OLSON, P.C.
370 Maple Ave. W., Ste 4
Vienna, VA 22180
PHILLIP L. JAUREGUI*
JUDICIAL ACTION GROUP
1300 I Street, NW
Suite 400 E
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 216-9309
plj@judicialactiongroup.com
wjo@mindspring.com
Attorneys for Amici Curiae
*Counsel of Record December 10, 2020
════════════════════════════════════════
List of Amici CuriaeMike Johnson represents the Fourth Congressional District of Louisiana
Gary Palmer represents the Sixth Congressional District of Alabama
Steve Scalise represents the First Congressional District of Louisiana
Jim Jordan represents the Fourth Congressional District of Ohio
Ralph Abraham represents the Fifth Congressional District of Louisiana
Rick W. Allen represents the Twelfth Congressional District of Georgia
James R. Baird represents the Fourth Congressional District of Indiana
Jim Banks represents the Third Congressional District of Indiana
Jack Bergman represents the First Congressional District of Michigan
Andy Biggs represents the Fifth Congressional District of Arizona
Gus Bilirakis represents the Twelfth Congressional District of Florida
Dan Bishop represents the Ninth Congressional District of North Carolina
Mike Bost represents the Twelfth Congressional District of Illinois
Kevin Brady represents the Eighth Congressional District of Texas
Mo Brooks represents the Fifth Congressional District of Alabama
Ken Buck represents the Fourth Congressional District of Colorado
Ted Budd represents the Thirteenth Congressional District of North Carolina
Tim Burchett represents the Second Congressional District of Tennessee
Michael C. Burgess represents the Twenty-Sixth Congressional District of Texas
Bradley Byrne represents the First Congressional District of Alabama
Ken Calvert represents the Forty-Second Congressional District of California
Earl L. “Buddy” Carter represents the First Congressional District of Georgia
Ben Cline represents the Sixth Congressional District of Virginia
Michael Cloud represents the Twenty-Seventh Congressional District of Texas
Mike Conaway represents the Eleventh Congressional District of Texas
Rick Crawford represents the First Congressional District of Arkansas
Dan Crenshaw represents the Second Congressional District of Texas
Mario Diaz-Balart represents the Twenty-Fifth Congressional District of Florida
Jeff Duncan represents the Third Congressional District of South Carolina
Neal P. Dunn, M.D. represents the Second Congressional District of Florida
Tom Emmer represents the Sixth Congressional District of Minnesota
Ron Estes represents the Fourth Congressional District of Kansas
A. Drew Ferguson, IV represents the Third Congressional District of Georgia
Chuck Fleischmann represents the Third Congressional District of Tennessee
Bill Flores represents the Seventeenth Congressional District of Texas
Jeff Fortenberry represents the First Congressional District of Nebraska
Virginia Foxx represents the Fifth Congressional District of North Carolina
Russ Fulcher represents the First Congressional District of Idaho
Matt Gaetz represents the First Congressional District of Florida States
Greg Gianforte represents the At Large Congressional District of Montana
Bob Gibbs represents the Seventh Congressional District of Ohio
Louie Gohmert represents the First Congressional District of Texas
Lance Gooden represents the Fifth Congressional District of Texas
Sam Graves represents the Sixth Congressional District of Missouri
Mark Green represents the Seventh Congressional District of Tennessee
Michael Guest represents the Third Congressional District of Mississippi
Andy Harris, M.D. represents the First Congressional District of Maryland
Vicky Hartzler represents the Fourth Congressional District of Missouri
Kevin Hern represents the First Congressional District of Oklahoma
Clay Higgins represents the Third Congressional District of Louisiana
Trey Hollingsworth represents the Ninth Congressional District of Indiana
Richard Hudson represents the Eighth Congressional District of North Carolina
Bill Huizenga represents the Second Congressional District of Michigan
Bill Johnson represents the Sixth Congressional District of Ohio
John Joyce represents the Thirteenth Congressional District of Pennsylvania
Fred Keller represents the Twelfth Congressional District of Pennsylvania
Mike Kelly represents the Sixteenth Congressional District of Pennsylvania
Trent Kelly represents the First Congressional District of Mississippi States
Steve King represents the Fourth Congressional District of Iowa
David Kustoff represents the Eighth Congressional District of Tennessee
Darin LaHood represents the Eighteenth Congressional District of Illinois
Doug LaMalfa represents the First Congressional District of California
Doug Lamborn represents the Fifth Congressional District of Colorado
Robert E. Latta represents the Fifth Congressional District of Ohio
Debbie Lesko represents the Eighth Congressional District of Arizona
Blaine Leutkemeyer represents the Third Congressional District of Missouri
Kenny Marchant represents the Twenty-Fourth Congressional District of Texas
Roger Marshall, M.D. represents the First Congressional District of Kansas
Tom McClintock represents the Fourth Congressional District of California
Cathy McMorris Rogers represents the Fifth Congressional District of Washington
Dan Meuser represents the Ninth Congressional District of Pennsylvania
Carol D. Miller represents the Third Congressional District of West Virginia
John Moolenaar represents the Fourth Congressional District of Michigan
Alex X. Mooney represents the Second Congressional District of West Virginia
Markwayne Mullin represents the Second Congressional District of Oklahoma
Gregory Murphy, M.D. represents the Third Congressional District of North Carolina
Dan Newhouse represents the Fourth Congressional District of Washington
Ralph Norman represents the Fifth Congressional District of South Carolina
Scott Perry represents the Tenth Congressional District of Pennsylvania
Guy Reschenthaler represents the Fourteenth Congressional District of Pennsylvania
Tom Rice represents the Seventh Congressional District of South Carolina
John Rose represents the Sixth Congressional District of Tennessee
David Rouzer represents the Seventh Congressional District of North Carolina
John Rutherford represents the Fourth Congressional District of Florida
Austin Scott represents the Eighth Congressional District of Georgia
Mike Simpson represents the Second Congressional District of Idaho
Adrian Smith represents the Third Congressional District of Nebraska
Jason Smith represents the Eighth Congressional District of Missouri
Ross Spano represents the Fifteenth Congressional District of Florida
Elise Stefanik represents the Twenty-First Congressional District of New York
Glenn “GT” Thompson represents the Fifteenth Congressional District of Pennsylvania
Tom Tiffany represents the Seventh Congressional District of Wisconsin
William Timmons represents the Fourth Congressional District of South Carolina
Ann Wagner represents the Second Congressional District of Missouri
Tim Walberg represents the Seventh Congressional District of Michigan
Michael Waltz represents the Sixth Congressional District of Florida States
Randy Weber represents the Fourteenth Congressional District of Texas
Daniel Webster represents the Eleventh Congressional District of Florida
Brad Wenstrup represents the Second Congressional District of Ohio
Bruce Westerman represents the Fourth Congressional District of Arkansas
Roger Williams represents the Twenty-Fifth Congressional District of Texas
Joe Wilson represents the Second Congressional District of South Carolina
Rob Wittman represents the First Congressional District of Virginia Ron Wright represents the Sixth
Congressional District of Texas States House of Representatives.
Ted S. Yoho represents the Third Congressional District of Florida
Lee Zeldin represents the First Congressional District of New YorkAttorneys for Plaintiff
Ken Paxton
Counsel of Record Attorney General of Texas
P.O. Box 12548 (MC 059)
Austin, TX 78711-2548kenneth.paxton@oag.texas.gov 512-936-1414
Party name: State of TexasL. Lin Wood Jr.
Counsel of Record P.O. Box 52584
Atlanta, GA 30355-0584lwood@linwoodlaw.com 4049833284
Trump Castigates Mueller Investigation as ‘Disgrace to Nation’
President says White House ‘is running very smoothly’ despite staffing shake-ups
President Trump asserted on Thursday that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election is in complete disarray and a “disgrace to our Nation,” while adding that his White House is operating smoothly as news emerges of high level shake-ups.
In a series of tweets early Thursday, the president said “The inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess.”
“They have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want. They are a disgrace to our Nation and don’t…care how many lives the ruin.”
It wasn’t immediately clear how Mr. Trump came to these conclusions about the Mueller probe’s inner workings. The White House and Mr. Trump’s outside counsel didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
.. Mr. Trump also described officials with the special counsel’s team as “Angry People” and described Mr. Mueller himself as “highly conflicted,” saying that he served under President Obama’s administration for eight years.
.. Mr. Trump and his lawyers are in the process of developing responses to written questions provided by Mr. Mueller’s investigators on the subject of collusion, according to a person familiar with the matter. The lawyers are expected to submit the responses by the end of the week.
After those questions are submitted, the president’s legal team has said it will discuss with the special counsel whether he still wants a sit-down interview with Mr. Trump. “I’d have to say…the lawyers are against it,” Rudy Giuliani, one of Mr. Trump’s attorneys, said in an interview last week.
.. “The White House is running very smoothly and the results for our Nation are obviously very good. We are the envy of the world,” he said. “But anytime I even think about making changes, the FAKE NEWS MEDIA goes crazy, always seeking to make us look as bad as possible! Very dishonest!”
On Wednesday, Mr. Trump removed his deputy national security adviser Mira Ricardel, moving to quickly resolve an unusual feud pitting first lady Melania Trump against her husband’s National Security Council.
Ms. Ricardel lost Mrs. Trump’s support after a dispute involving the first lady’s trip to Africa last month, according to current and former administration officials. Aides to the two women clashed over whether the first lady’s plane would have seats for National Security Council staff, and relations deteriorated after that, these people said.
Advisers to the president described turbulence inside the White House in recent days, with aides jockeying for new positions left by officials who are departing or expected to depart.
Ms. Ricardel’s abrupt departure came amid a broader shake-up that could see the exit of chief of staff John Kelly and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
Why Brett Kavanaugh Wasn’t Believable
Judge Kavanaugh, when it was his turn, was not laughing. He was yelling. He spent more than half an hour raging against Senate Democrats and the “Left” for “totally and permanently” destroying his name, his career, his family, his life. He called his confirmation process a “national disgrace.”
“You may defeat me in the final vote, but you will never get me to quit,” Judge Kavanaugh said, sounding like someone who suddenly doubted his confirmation to the Supreme Court — an outcome that seemed preordained only a couple of weeks ago.
Judge Kavanaugh’s defiant fury might be understandable coming from someone who believes himself innocent of the grotesque charges he’s facing. Yet it was also evidence of an unsettling temperament in a man trying to persuade the nation of his judicial demeanor.
.. As he put it in his testimony, “What goes around, comes around,” in the partisan vortex that has been intensifying in Washington for decades now. His open contempt for the Democrats on the committee also raised further questions about his own fair-mindedness, and it served as a reminder of his decades as a Republican warrior who would take no prisoners.
.. He gave coy answers when pressed about what was clearly a sexual innuendo in his high-school yearbook.
He insisted over and over that others Dr. Blasey named as attending the gathering had “said it didn’t happen,” when in fact at least two of them have said only that they don’t recall it — and one of them told a reporter that she believes Dr. Blasey.
.. Judge Kavanaugh clumsily dodged a number of times when senators asked him about his drinking habits. When Senator Amy Klobuchar gently pressed him about whether he’d ever blacked out from drinking, he at first wouldn’t reply directly. “I don’t know, have you?” he replied — a condescending and dismissive response to the legitimate exercise of a senator’s duty of advise and consent. (Later, after a break in the hearing, he apologized.)
.. Judge Kavanaugh gave categorical denials a number of times, including, at other points, that he’d ever blacked out from too much drinking. Given numerous reports now of his heavy drinking in college, such a blanket denial is hard to believe.
.. then there’s the fact that she gains nothing by coming forward. She is in hiding now with her family in the face of death threats.
.. cowardice of the committee’s 11 Republicans, all of them men, and none of them, apparently, capable of asking Dr. Blasey a single question.
.. Eventually, as Judge Kavanaugh testified, the Republican senators ventured out from behind their shield. Doubtless seeking to ape President’s Trump style and win his approval, they began competing with each other to make the most ferocious denunciation of their Democratic colleagues and the most heartfelt declaration of sympathy for Judge Kavanaugh, in a show of empathy far keener than they managed to muster for Dr. Blasey.
.. Pressed over and over by Democratic senators, Judge Kavanaugh never could come up with a clear answer for why he wouldn’t also want a fair, neutral F.B.I. investigation into the allegations against him — the kind of investigation the agency routinely performs, and that Dr. Blasey has called for. At one point, though, he acknowledged that it was common sense to put some questions to other potential witnesses besides him.
.. When Senator Patrick Leahy asked whether the judge was the inspiration for a hard-drinking character named Bart O’Kavanaugh in a memoir about teenage alcoholism by Mr. Judge, Judge Kavanaugh replied, “You’d have to ask him.”
Asking Mr. Judge would be a great idea. Unfortunately he’s hiding out in a Delaware beach town and Senate Republicans are refusing to subpoena him.
.. Why? Mr. Judge is the key witness in Dr. Blasey’s allegation. He has said he has no recollection of the party or of any assault. But he hasn’t faced live questioning to test his own memory and credibility. And Dr. Blasey is far from alone in describing Judge Kavanaugh and Mr. Judge as heavy drinkers; several of Judge Kavanaugh’s college classmates have said the same.
.. If the committee will not make a more serious effort, the only choice for senators seeking to protect the credibility of the Supreme Court will be to vote no.
Debacle in Quebec
there has never been a disaster like the G7 meeting that just took place. It could herald the beginning of a trade war, maybe even the collapse of the Western alliance. At the very least it will damage America’s reputation as a reliable ally for decades to come; even if Trump eventually departs the scene in disgrace, the fact that someone like him could come to power in the first place will always be in the back of everyone’s mind.
.. I’m already seeing headlines to the effect that Trump took a belligerent “America first” position, demanding big concessions from our allies, which would have been bad. But the reality was much worse.
.. He didn’t put America first; Russia first would be a better description. And he didn’t demand drastic policy changes from our allies; he demanded that they stop doing bad things they aren’t doing. This wasn’t a tough stance on behalf of American interests, it was a declaration of ignorance and policy insanity.
.. Trump started with a call for readmitting Russia to the group, which makes no sense at all. The truth is that Russia, whose GDP is about the same size as Spain’s and quite a bit smaller than Brazil’s, was always a ringer in what was meant to be a group of major economies. It was brought in for strategic reasons, and kicked out when it invaded Ukraine.
.. There is no possible justification for bringing it back, other than whatever hold Putin has on Trump personally.
.. Then Trump demanded that the other G7 members remove their “ridiculous and unacceptable” tariffs on U.S. goods – which would be hard for them to do, because their actual tariff rates are very low. The European Union, for example, levies an average tariff of only three percent on US goods.
.. Yes, Canada imposes high tariffs on certain dairy products. But it’s hard to make the case that these special cases are any worse than, say, the 25 percent tariff the U.S. still imposes on light trucks.
.. His trade advisers have repeatedly claimed that value-added taxes, which play an important role in many countries, are a form of unfair trade protection. But this is sheer ignorance
.. they’re just a way of implementing a sales tax — which is why they’re legal under the WTO.
.. He may just have been ranting. After all, he goes on and on about other vast evils that don’t exist, like a huge wave of violent crime committed by illegal immigrants (who then voted in the millions for Hillary Clinton.)
Was there any strategy behind Trump’s behavior? Well, it was pretty much exactly what he would have done if he really is Putin’s puppet: yelling at friendly nations about sins they aren’t committing won’t bring back American jobs, but it’s exactly what someone who does want to break up the Western alliance would like to see.
.. Alternatively, maybe he was just acting out because he couldn’t stand having to spend hours with powerful people who will neither flatter him nor bribe him by throwing money at his family businesses – people who, in fact, didn’t try very hard to hide the contempt
.. this was an utter, humiliating debacle. And we all know how Trump responds to humiliation.